The present invention relates to a memory and method in a computer system, and more particularly to a memory board and method which deletes (e.g., disconnects) a memory card upon, for example, an intermittent fault and/or a non-fatal fault.
In a conventional memory, a memory block is separated by detecting an error due to a fixed fault of a memory. In the conventional memory, an access to the separated memory block is prevented by registering a column address and a row number of the separated block in a delete column address register and a delete row address register.
In the conventional memory, a fault in a memory block is detected by one of checking a memory block during system start-up and a parity check during system operation. Therefore, a fault can be detected by these checks if the fault is a fixed fault. On the other hand, when a fault is an intermittent fault, the operation can be continued as long as a fault is not detected by checking.
With respect to contents of a fault, when an error due to a fault has a plurality of bit errors (e.g., errors in two or more bits) simultaneously, they are processed as a fault which cannot be recovered and are thus fatal. However, when a fault error has one bit error, an operation can be continued even if it is not processed as a fatal error because recovery is possible.
However, if an error is detected frequently, system reliability may be poor even if the error is due to an intermittent fault. The memory having an intermittent fault which is detected frequently may eventually cause a fatal fault even if the memory initially does not have a fatal fault. Thus, the memory lowers system reliability and requires time for recovering the fault (e.g., correcting the error), thereby deteriorating the system performance.